An addiction psychiatrist has said smoking marijuana does not necessarily cause addiction to other drugs later in life, contradicting the common theory it is a ‘gateway drug’.
Dr Kevin Hill, a director at McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University was answering questions about marijuana on Reddit, when he shared his opinion.
Responding to a question regarding the claim that marijuana is a gateway drug — defined as a drug that could lead the user to try more addictive, or ‘harder’, drugs, Dr Hill said: “I think in the US, when people say ‘gateway’, they imply a causal relationship. If you use [marijuana], you will automatically move on to become addicted to other drugs later.”
